How important are "trophies" to you?

[NONYA]

"Sure there are bad ones but he majority of them are as fine of people as are found anywhere."

maybe in your neck of the woods,i get harassed on a regular basis while in the field by these fine people,most of them young new wardens just hoping you are doing somthing wrong.The wardens around here are puppets for big out of state landowners that put thier kids through college(NO JOKE),they treat every hunter they talk to like a poacher and then give a bad attitude when they cant write you up....they have a rep here and they earn it every year.

[dakotashooter2]

Looks like almost all your trophys came from a game farm anyways so your shooting what you paid for not holding out and taking a chance of not filling a tag.There is a big difference.


That brings up a good point. Is farm raised game really a "trophy"? Many are unnaturally bred for size in mass quantities. A trophy should be something that has some special characteristics about it or the conditions under which it was harvested. What is special about a 170 class buck if all you have to do is pay your money and it's yours. Id rather hunt a buck thats rack occures every 1 in 1000 deer than the same size rack that occures every 1 in 5. what is special if EVERYBODY has one?

[NONYA]

anything shot behind a high fence is no trophy in my book,just my opinion,i dont care how big the pen is,its fenced in and raised like livestock,they have thier food and water regulated and cant migrate with the seasons like wild game do,I have been to a big game ranch in Tx and the deer were fat as pigs (from the corn feeders) and showed no fear of humans,the only thing i saw that acted wild were the pigs.

[kyelkhunter3006]

SDS-GEN:

Yep, it's poaching in it's lowest form.  The problem about the landowners complaining is that the landowners are the ones doing the majority of the poaching.  The farm I hunt belongs to my wife's aunt and uncle (siblings).  He's got the land posted, fenced (not high fence, barbed wire), survey markers, everything he can do.  The warden says that unless he can catch them in the act, or with game that's out of season, all he can do it site them for trespassing, if he can even catch them doing that.  Then Alan would have to drive down there (100 miles one way), take a day off work, to go to court. 

Busting people doing things like this isn't like catching a person speeding.  You can't just sit and wait for one to drive by.  They know the land and how to get where they want to go without being seen.  Kentucky's DNR guys are way overworked and underpaid.  There is just one or two per county in most areas.  Makes it almost impossible to concentrate on one area of land.

[LEO]

Nonya, hate to hear that, like I said though there bad apples in every barrel.  In most of the places I have been that would not have been tolerated by the supervisors and as far as putting their kids through college, they would have been fired on the spot.  I am not questioning your experience, I am just stating that fortunately I have never had such an experience and hope I don't based on some other posts here, you are not the only one who has had a bad experience.

[kyelkhunter3006]

I know one warden in another county that quote "I can't kill my deer during the season, as I'm too busy trying to catch poachers andn trespassers."  "I have to wait until the ""late"" season".  Funny thing is, there isn't a late modern gun season in KY in December or January.  I have a couple more stories about that warden, but just thinking about that butthead gives me a headache.

[SDS-GEN]

I started this post because a friend and I were discussing how fanatical some people were about antlers while others could care less.  We had talked to several people around four places that we hunt and got widely different results about what type of deer people shot.  In most cases it didn't matter what type of weapon was used.  Interesting as it may seem the people with the highest overall success, including doe and buck were the "antler" hunters, often bagging at least two deer per season, and passing on many deer because they couldn't use the meat.  These are the guys who want a wall hanger, some will shoot the first doe that walks by then hold out for a big buck, others hunt with bows for a big buck and shoot does during gun season.  These folks don't have to kill a buck every year, most just love being in the woods hunting. 
A couple of guys I know cap the first deer they see buck or doe, have never had any taxidermy done and could care less about antler size.  These hunters are also very successful and almost always put meat in the freezer.  Both of the guys I talked to that hunt this way are gun only.
The last group I talked to are the "I would like to have a wall hanger but it just doesn't ever work out" guys.  This group confuses me a little, I will give a couple examples.  Bill hunts the property next to mine every year, gun mostly but occasionally with a bow too.  He hasn't ever tagged a big buck, but every time he helps me drag one out of the woods I get the same question, "when are you gonna let one of these big ones walk so I can shoot it?"  My reply is always the same, "the most important thing to bagging a big deer is not shooting a small one first."  You see every year Bill blasts the first little buck that walks by, the buck could be standing with a dozen does and he'll kill the buck every time instead of killing a doe and keeping his buck tag for a bruiser.
Jack is a bow hunter who lives next door to my friend and hunts a neigbors property, Jack also talks of bagging a big deer, but has no big antlers to show for his efforts.  He tells everyone he is holding out for a trophy and every once in a while Jack gets a deer, usually a little fork horn or basket rack.  Once when my friend was helping Jack drag a small buck out he asked "I thought you were holding out for a big buck?"  Jack's reply was "when you hunt with a bow you gotta take what you can get."
 
As for me, I love antlers, I shoot the first doe I can then hold out for a big buck,(caribou, elk, whatever) sometimes it works out sometimes it doesn't.  I agree with many here that the experience is the most important part of the hunt.  I hunt big game, especially up north or out west, for the adventure.  I believe this makes it much easier to "eat a tag" and go home without game.  To me mature bucks are a much harder animal to kill than a little buck or doe.  I hunt Illinois for deer three and a half months, bow, shotgun, muzzle loader, they are all just tools that allow me to hunt ( I have always loved guns though).  The biggest thrill for me is getting up close to an animal, if Illinois allowed spear hunting I would probably do it.  All the meat gets used, either by me or my friends.

[terryfcampbell]

Trophies are nice to look at but the rack is a little tuff for me to eat

[qajaq59]

OK...I'm a trophy hunter...I don't expect anyone to agree with me.

Don't look for me to disagree with you. If that is the way you enjoy hunting, be my guest.
We all hunt for different reasons, but so long as we obey the law, I see nothing wrong with hunting for whatever reason you like.

[S.S.]

not important at all...


I hunt for meat or to remove vermin.. Don't have anything
against sport hunting, It just isn't for me..

[BigLost]

now ,growin' up in montana,,I mean,MONTANA,,nothing cocked my pistol like a heavy 32"-38" muley,,so big that you may have to look twice to be sure it wasn't a elk,,and for years thats all I wanted,,,whitetails did nothing for me and still don't,,,elk,,just an oversized mule(sorry mule men),,moose,,,just more meat,,,,but a BIG heavy muley.....'ummmm,,,I still love 'm but now I want to leave 'em in the gene pool,,,I 'll take something of much lower quality genetically,,,tastes just as good or better.I learned about quality management from my German grand-father,,thats how they do it in old country,,over forty years ago!!,,,as far as high fences go,,when you watch a deer clear a 8 ft. fence from a standing start,WITHOUT crouching,,you realize the fence isn't going to keep them in,,,I used to do water- welling in south texas and have seen it many times,,,they come and go as they please,,no not a trophy hunter,,my field craft,,shooting skill and use of the animal taken is what matters to me,,and I have no problem with horn-hunters as long as they don't waste the animal,,,I don't understand it when all they talk about is genes,genes,genes,,then go out and thin the gene pool,,but personally,,no problem.

[41 mag]

I have gone through all of the scenerios from gotta fill my tags to just gotta be out in the woods. Personally at this point in my life I am much more pleased by observing than hunting or shooting deer. I have hunted mulie's and elk and took a nice mulie for the area we hunted. Never saw the elk. But had a great time looking and that to me was more important.

As for horns, Yes I will take them under the right circumstances. I have seen bucks which would make lots of folks shake uncontrollably and let them walk. Just wasn't what did it for me. Then I have taken a few which were simply horns which were tropies to me due to the circumstances by which they were taken.

I prefer really big typical racks, which in the areas we hunt are not all that common. Be it an eight or ten point or even a few sixes I have seen through the years, they just do more for me than some of the huge racks which seem to captivate all of the rags and tv shows. The friends property that I hunt on is low fenced and surrounded by folks who shoot a lot of deer. We generally will pick one out and hope to watch it and learn its routine through several years if they make it. Then if they do we generally have an idea of what it's potential is and if we choose to take it it is only taken if to be mounted. All of the deer are free to travel and we see them once or twice a season. It is hard to pick one deer from several hundered and then hunt that one particular one, but it is very rewarding when you can and it all comes together after several years of following them through the woods. My best to date is this typical 21" wide 8 point I got several years ago.

He is different than any of the other deer I have seen in having the white throat all the way to his brisket. He also appeared to have a white star shaped area on his forehead which turned out to be where he rubbed all of the hide away for several years while in rut. He was just different and I thought he was a trophy in my eyes.

This past fall I sat with my grandson while watching a feeder we had put up. It was mostly for him to be able to see deer and to shoot hogs. We had this young 8 come out and he came to within 10 yds of us on several occaisions,

It was a great experience for the kid and a joy for me to watch his expressions change as the deer came out and then came up close.

We also had been sitting out in the open on top of a flood levee on a couple of occaisions and happen to catch the one buck I have been watching for the past several years.


He has grown into a really nice 10 point and the only reason he wasn't taken this past fall is that with the drought we had he was pretty lacking from what he could be this year. I chose to let him go one more year and if he makes it he will be a great 6 1/2yr old and well worthy of a shoulder mount. I have had him in my sights on several occaisions but he always seemed to get something between us or get the alarm from a near by doe. With 800 or so acres of river bottom to run through it isn't like sitting out and waiting for him to show. WE do not generally use stands and simpley still hunt which makes it even more of a challenge. Two of the times I have seen him was at ranges closer than 50 yds and it really gets you pumped up even when they get the upper hand.

[alsaqr]

i quit hunting for horns after killing three whitetail bucks that scored over 195. The one from 1965 was finally scored in 2004 and went 202 points.  All three were taken in fair chase at another time.   Now i  just have fun hunting:  If nice horns walk by-great.  If they do not i will take a doe.   

[NONYA]

I can shoot deer and sometimes elk from the back porch,holding out for a true trophy makes a hunt out of hunting,I try to better my best buck every year and that makes it a challenge every year,if it comes down to the last day Im not going to shoot  a young deer just to fill the tag,i already have a freezer full of does shot in the first week.

[*ROCK-MAN*]

NONYA,Come on back to texas and I'll be glad to show ya some wild eyed deer.But bring your compass bud.There is so much open land to hunt down here it's not funny.You musta went out west or down south to the big game ranchs.Texas is a big state and there's something for everyone.I harvested 4 deer last year.An axis doe and fallow doe off one ranch in west texas same hunt,same blind same evenin.Was way to easy but the family enjoyed the meat.One fallow buck off a ranch in south texas which made a nice (trophy) But the whitetail doe I shot on the last day of season in east texas was my real trophy.This after a year of really hard hunting in the forrest and my buck out thinking my at every turn(dang) But it's ok cause he'll be even bigger next year.This is ground hunting with no blind or bait other than acorns from hardwood stands of timber and these deer are foxy.
Rock